The 25th & 26th; Venogram day!

The 25th of January. Venogram day!

I was up at six, and having got dressed, I drank as much water as was humanly possible before my cut-off at seven. We arrived at ambulatory care at about quarter to eight, and we sat around for forty five minutes reading our books before the nurse came to start going through the checklist. It became apparent that the doctors wanted my potassium checking because it was high yesterday, but it was fine today. At half past nine, I was told to gown up because they'd be coming to get me soon, but then they actually didn't arrive for two hours. There had been an emergency in angio so I was not angry, just bored and hungry. So hungry.

The nurse in imaging clerked me in (the amount of times I have repeated my date of birth, address and the fact that I am NOT PREGNANT today), then Andrew and the doctor who was working with him came to see me, and we talked through the plan. Andrew had the same theory as me, and the intention for today was to do the venogram and if we could do the venoplasty then he would.

I got taken into the angio suite, and everyone introduced themselves while I and the room got prepped. I got to be in the Who which is fun - normally I'm asleep for that part. While the doctor shoved the wire up inside my vein, the nurse on my other side stroked my hand and tried to distract me by talking about bees. I love that they do that kind of thing. We both knew what she was doing, but it is like a quiet contract we both entered into. They took some pictures of inside my arm, and it was found that I had a narrowing in the subclavian vein (not the superior vena cava like last time). I hadn't had a massive amount of gadolinium (the dye they have to use because I'm allergic to the CT contrast dye they would normally use) yet so they gave me some fentanyl and midazolam, then I had a lovely nap while they inflated my vein. Hopefully that should do the trick, but if it doesn't go down in a couple of weeks, I'll have to go back to have something more invasive and permanent, like a stent. Let's hope not.

The 26th of January.

Ooh I am so tired. Very long day. I'd not long finished my breakfast when my phone rang - it was a journalist called Christine who had got in touch with me via Anthony Nolan and wanted to do a kind of basic interview before she goes pitching the story to different publications. Sounds like it's going to somewhere like Woman and Home or Woman's Own right now.

When I'd finished talking to her, there was just time for me to eat some lunch and sort out my bag before I had to go to the station. I got taken to my train, but before we set off, there was an announcement to say there had been a fatality, so we were being diverted via Stafford, so would be skipping some stations. We eventually arrived in London forty five minutes late.

I had planned on going and doing some shopping but that seemed rather pointless and expensive considering the cost of cabs involved and the time I'd get to spend in the shops, so I went to Origin Coffee and had a flat white and a brown sugar cookie while looking over the NHS documents about second transplants. I get more angry every time I read them.

I sat and watched people go by for nearly an hour, then I needed to get a cab to go and meet Lauren and Amy for dinner. I thought it would be easiest to get one from Euston, so I drove back down the road to the station. I also had to pee and the disabled toilets at Euston are all out of service so someone had to let me in the baby change toilet instead, but at least it meant I didn't have to pay!

I was able to pick up a taxi without too much difficulty, and he took me to The Diner in Camden. They found a ramp so I could get inside, then I got settled in a booth and had another coffee while I waited. Lauren was a bit late because the traffic was awful, but it was fine because there was a couple with two cute little boys nearby who were very entertaining.

When she did arrive, she gave me my birthday present of the Ruby Tandoh book, so I can make lots of tasty foods. Speaking of tasty foods, she ordered a vegan burrito and I got some pancakes with bacon to make up for the lack of pancakes on my birthday. Amy arrived mid-meal (she did say we could order without her), and we got to just have a nice dinner and talk about normal things, like Lauren's move and an exciting project which Amy has been put forward for. I got my arms out, and Lauren found the size difference absolutely hilarious. She is one of the few people allowed to laugh. I'm actually fairly sure it's got worse since yesterday but I just have to watch it.

I kind of had to leave in a rush, hauling my chair out of the door just in time to get into the Hailo cab. The driver was wearing shorts, which wasn't then great for him when we got stuck outside the Anthony Nolan office gates and he stood around ringing bells until I got through to someone on the phone who let me in.

I was the first one of our group to turn up, followed by Jack, who is a supporter running the marathon (again), and Hayley and Jess who are both heavily involved with Marrow. We got started very promptly at eight, in a session facilitated by Ammeline, who does not work for Anthony Nolan. We began with an exercise saying what kind of animal we would be - I decided I am a panda because although everything seems to keep telling them to die, they just refuse to and I think that's like me. Plus I'm cute. Then we got on to the subject of charity and Anthony Nolan specifically, what they do well and what they could do better. We were kind of biased because we love them, but we were able to come up withe some things.

I had to leave before we officially finished, because I needed to get back to Euston, although I don't think it was going to go on too much longer. The car that arrived to take me there was a Mercedes, non-accessible, so I had to collapse the chair and put it up again at the other end, which was a disaster for breathing. It took ages for me to get back to normal.

I bought a hot chocolate and went to the assistance office, where the man told me to go down to the platform where his colleague would meet me. He did not appear, and after ten minutes of waiting in the freezing cold, I rang the office back and he was confused as apparently he'd rung the man "ages ago". When he finally ambled up in his buggy, he was then pretty incompetent at putting the ramp on the train so having got up to my seat, I did not thank him.

We got moving, and I was desperate to sleep. However, I cannot sleep in a place that isn't my bed and especially when I'm not even poorly, and I am paranoid about missing my stop. No sleeping was going to happen until I got home. Unfortunately, this train got delayed too because an engineering one in front of us had a problem so we got stuck outside Milton Keynes for forty five minutes. So dull. We made up a little bit of time, but still didn't get to New Street until one. Tired, cold, in pain.